The Calgary Stampede Parade is the highlight event for the opening ceremonies of theCalgary Stampede, starting in 1912. The Parade takes place starting in the parade grounds and wrapping around the Calgary Downtown core.

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The First

The first Calgary Stampede Parade took place in 1912, being an extension of the Calgary Stampede Exhibitions that had been taking place for years before. A Welcoming arch had been erected on center street between 8th and 9th avenues, as a greeting for the Governor General and his Wife. The parade was designed to portray the spirit of the West, featuring Hudson's Bay traders, Whiskey Traders, and 2000 Indians in full ceremonial dress, who performed traditional dance in celebration of the event.

The Governor General of Canada and his family stayed with the Lougheed family and were invited to ride in their host’s car. In the lead section was Johnny Mitchell, the first mayor to wear a five-gallon Stetson and start Calgarians’ tradition of dressing western.

Today's Parade

The parade is normally led by the Calgary Police motorcycle unit and opens with the Stampede portion of the parade, including an official pace vehicle, a float, the parade marshal, the Stampede Executive, and the Stampede Queen and Princesses. The parade marshal for the 2009 parade is Mike Holmes, known for his television series called "Holmes on Homes". The first band to appear is the Calgary Stampede showband.

The parade consists of approximately 150 entries, including floats, marching bands, horse riders, vintage vehicles, as well as horse drawn carriages and stagecoaches. Several chuckwagon racers and rodeo contestants participate in the parade. There are also entries involving government officials, the pioneers and the Indian bands of the area.

Large inflatable balloons and other exhibits with high heights are not commonly found in this parade as the parade route has numerous overhead hazards, including +15 walkways, traffic signal cantilevers, and energized overhead wires at three C-Train LRT level crossings.

The pass through time for the parade for a given viewpoint is about 150 minutes. Parade exhibits take about 90 minutes to cover the parade route. While the parade officially starts at 9:00 AM, many parade viewers get into the downtown core before 6:00 AM to attempt to obtain the best seating and viewpoints along 6th Avenue. There are bleachers deployed along the route, however they are reserved for companies, tour groups, and other ticketed people. The parade route is closed to traffic at 7:00 AM. There is pre-parade entertainment provided.

Given the high number of horses involved in the parade, street sweepers are deployed every 30 or so entries. Some of these vehicles get decorated for the parade.

Parade Route

The route starts at 3rd Street and 6th Avenue SE and proceeds westbound along 6th Avenue S. The route turns left at 10th Street West and proceeds south three blocks to 9th Avenue SW, where it takes a left turn and proceeds eastbound, ending at the intersection of 9th Avenue and 4th Street SE.

The current parade route is one of the larger controversies over the Calgary Stampede. Since the inception of the parade, the parade has used the downtown one way streets for their parade route. The arguable harms of this is that the downtown core essentially shuts down. Over the past few years, many alternatives have been suggested. Among these include the suggestion to have the parade take place outside the west side of downtown exclusively in the east side, where general traffic and use is less common, or having the parade take place along McLeod Trail directly linked to the parade ground with many possible route work-arounds for vehicular traffic, or having the parade take place outside of city grounds entirely in agrarian areas.

The C-Train remains fully operational during the parade. The crossings on the parade route are manually policed during the parade. Once the crossing is manually secured, trains are manually waived through.

Incidents of Note

In the 2002 Stampede Parade, a streaker whose identity remained unknown ran into the parade festivities, and subsequently fell in a combination of mud and horse manure. The streaker, following this embarrassment, fled the scene into the Bow Valley buildings complex, but security staff was unable to find or apprehend him.

In the 1994 Stampede Parade an apparition of the Virgin Mary was arguably found in a combination of foot prints in the manure area of the horse holding area used prior to the festivities. This event sparked an influx of christian supports to the subsequent Stampede Parade in 1995.

Accidents during Parade

In 1987 a small toddler walked onto the parade route between 5th avenue and 6th avenue, directly in front of the horse-drawn chuck wagons. Another spectator, Taylor Dawson, seeing the child in danger rushed out to save him, and was himself trampled to death by the horses. The toddler remained unharmed.

In 1995 Chris Husband, who had bought a corn dog from a vendor on the street, choked on said corn dog during the parade. Tragically, EMS was not able to get to him before he suffocated to death, as all access to the area had been blocked by associated parade blockades. In response, the Calgary Stampede has both ensured EMS presence at frequent places along the parade route in the future, and banned vendors from selling solid foods on the parade route.

In 1941 on the float dedicated to the Canadian Army, suspected sabotage resulted in blank rounds being replaced by live ammunition. During the salutatory shots into the air, significant damage to surrounding buildings was done, leading to debris falling on and injuring 8 people between 1st and 2nd avenue.